Process of making iron from the ore.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT H. AIKEN, OF WINTHROP HARBOR, ILLINOIS.

. PROCESS O MAKING IRON FROM [THE one.

This invention relates to producing iron from the ordinary oxid ores by first dissolvingthe oxid in a molten bath or slag and then decomposing the dissolved oxid and depositing the metal as iron by the action of anelec trio current.

II have found that under proper conditions iron oxid is readily dissolved in molten silicate of one or more of theinetals not less electropositive than iron and that whenso dissolved it is readily deposited by a moderate current of electricity. Excellent results are obtained bytgradually feeding pref- 'sirable though not indispensable;

erably pulverized Fe or Fe O into a molten bath of FeOSiO and maintaining a direct electriccurrent through the mass. addition of OaO,Mg'O or other oxid acting similarlylowers the fusing-point of the bath, aids solution, insures .an advantageous basic character for the bath, and .is therefore-de- As much as twenty per cent. of Fe O can be dissolved in basic silicate of proper constitution. The apparatus employed may be without novelty, t e anode being preferably carbon or the-like,

the deposited metal serving as the cathode,

and the comminuted material being stirred into the bath as theoperation proceeds. The.

voltage is ke t at the proper point during the operation-t at is, it is made high enou h to overcome the resistance of the bath an decom ose the iron oxid held in solutionbut not i'gh enough to separateto any material extent the silicon or other more electropositive metals entering into the combination of the silicate. "The temperature of the bath is maintained by supplying a current ,of the proper number of amperes. per unit area for this purpose. l

v It 1s to be observed that this process is con tinuous and that the furnace may be very large, the latter point being important in that 1t permlts economy in the matter of current.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed June 1,1903. sesame. 159,609.

The

Patented March 27, 1906.

If during the continuance of thecurrent the supplyof oXid be such that there isa defi "ciency'in the bath, the electrically-low oxid of the silicate will be decomposed, provided, of course, that the voltage of the current be sufliciently high to decompose such oXid but on the introduction of a plentiful supply of iron oxid the silicate will seize upon enough to make good the former loss. It is then quite possible to modify the process by supplying oxid at such a rate that thedeposited' metal will be taken from the silicate of iron already in the furnace in part, if'not entirely, and perhaps with an acid silicate it .may be practically possible to so far modify the process that there shall be absolutely no solution of the iron oxid'in the silicate bath. In other words, it is possible to carryfthe process to the oint where practically no iron remains int e silicate-bath provided that the bath containsother suitable bases, as before suggested. Such .a course of procedure would not give a continuous .process obviously.

However, When the bath .always contains a considerable amount of dissolved iron oxid and the electrolysis is'practically a contmuous process, the proportion of oxid contained at any given time may vary from a much smaller amount to about twenty per cent. of the silicate.

WhatI claim is 1. The method of makin iron from iron oXids which consists in disso ving the oxid in a molten-silicate of one or more metals-not less electropositive than iron, and passing through the solution a continuous current adapted to decompose said oxid.

. 2. The method of making iron from iron oxids which consists in forming a bath of'molten silicate of one or more metals not less name to this specification in presence of two witnesses.

, ROBERT H. AIKEN.v Witnesses:

J. JEROME LIGHTFOOT, WALLAcE .GREENE. 

